


A Long Way From Home

by thatdamnuchiha



Series: Team 7 Shenanigans [4]
Category: Naruto, The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Elfling, Elfling Kakashi, Elfling Naruto, Elfling Sakura, Elfling Sasuke, Elfling Team Seven, Elflings, Erestor makes a brief cameo, Gen, Haruno Sakura Needs a Hug, Hatake Kakashi Needs a Hug, Hatake Kakashi is a Troll, Kaguya Wins, Middle Earth, Pre-Canon, Rebirth, Reincarnation, Sakura would like to go back to her corner now, Sasuke is AWOL, Team as Family, Trauma, Uchiha Sasuke Needs a Hug, Uzumaki Naruto Needs a Hug, as does Glorfindel, naruto is lost
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-23
Updated: 2019-07-24
Packaged: 2020-07-11 18:21:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,476
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19932454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thatdamnuchiha/pseuds/thatdamnuchiha
Summary: Trolling people is Kakashi’s way of dealing with his new situation. Running away is Sakura’s answer. Sasuke’s solution involves hiding, and Naruto just wonders what his Uzumaki luck has landed him in this time around.Or in other words, where Team Seven are transported to Middle Earth as Elflings after their disastrous battle with Kaguya.





	1. Kakashi and the Art of Trolling Elves

**Author's Note:**

> Something to note in this fanfiction, especially if you're up to date with all your facts about elves... I've adjusted the age of maturity of the elves to a hundred rather than fifty, since that means I can quarter their physical ages (appearance-wise). I wanted Kakashi to be an adorable child rather than an angsty teen, and that way I could also make the rest of Team Seven adorably smaller too. This fact passes onto the next part of this series: Finding Family.

Kakashi was confused when he woke up on the shore of a river. Less because of the river, and more so because he’d woken up at all.

The last thing he remembered was being stabbed with one of Kaguya’s All-Killing Ash bones. Wincing at the memory of the pain, he peered around the place, hands shifting the pebbles upon which he sat. Water had already soaked through the bottom of his trousers – never a good thing, especially when there was no shelter in sight as far as the eye could see.

Biting his lip, Kakashi stood, blinking at the far too miniscule change in height. He stared down at his feet, confused as to why they were so small all of a sudden. They were tiny. A shudder ran down his back. _Child sized,_ he realised with a start. “Fuck,” he muttered, crashing to his knees, uncaring as the small stones bit into his skin. The lighting was dim, especially with the dark overcast and the ominous rumbles of the clouds above that promised rain and thunder. Channelling chakra to his eyes to help him see should’ve been easy.

Except it wasn’t.

Nothing happened, the odd energy inside him remaining stubbornly inside his core. It didn’t even crackle like his chakra used to, adding to the evidence that he’d wound up in something weird. Again. _He’d been caught up in too much weird stuff after the formation of Team Seven, but Kakashi had to admit this took the cake._ The last time he’d died, he’d met his dad in some dismal place, but at least he’d still been able to feel his chakra.

Peering into the water made him blink again, a soft snort escaping his lips as long locks of silvery hair fall down in a curtain around his face. Gone was his untameable mop of spiky silver hair, replaced by soft tame silvery locks. Large dark grey eyes stared back at him from the rippling surface, cheeks still lined with baby fat, bow-shaped pink lips quivering as he opened his mouth to scream every curse word under the sun. It was the face of a child reflected on the water. _A child, not a twenty-something-old adult._ His new face. _And it had the joys of making him look about eight-years-old, if that._

“You have got to be kidding me,” he hissed, the high pitch and squeak of his new voice making him startle in surprise, and then he falls back out of the water and onto the pebbled shore with a muted thud. Even his words sounded different, coming out in a language he’d never heard before, and yet understood almost instinctively. “Fucking dammit.”

He was in a child’s body, he couldn’t use his chakra, and best of all, he was all alone in an unfamiliar land.

* * *

He followed the river until he reached the road, hands bleeding from the amount of times he’d tripped and barely saved himself from a mouthful of mud and twigs. Evidently there’d been some heavy rainfall around the area as of late, since it was ridiculously slippery, and the lack of coordination he had with his titchy body didn’t help.

If Gai could see him now he’d probably laugh his socks off. If Obito could see him, he’d probably sneer and shove his adorable face down into the mud for kicks and giggles.

Cursing Naruto bitterly inside his head, _because clearly this had something to do with him_ , he stepped onto the road, senses tingling as he walked in full view of every possible traveller… not that there were many. In fact, he was the only one there, heading east, towards the faint sounds of life he could hear with his ridiculously sharp ears. They were better than the ones he’d had as a chakra-using shinobi, so it was saying something.

Sunlight barely peeked through the clouds, his footsteps inaudible as he hurried down the road, breaking into a run as his stomach grumbled loudly. He hadn’t seen a single plant or edible substance he recognised, further cementing the idea that some god out there was having fun at his expense by throwing him into a completely new world, with nothing but a pair of pants and a weird pale blue tunic that offsets his silvery hair.

Movement made his body go still, instincts chasing him into the trees as he caught sight of a group of people ahead of him. _This was his chance to gain information about this new strange place._ Or it would’ve been, had he understood a single word that came out of their mouths as they spoke to the gate guard.

_A different language._

Kakashi snorted. _Of course there was._

* * *

Sneaking into the village was easy, for all their gates and their keepers they seemed to have. He was a trained ninja, and his body was seemingly suitable for stealth, for all he barely made a sound while walking. Swiping food was even easier, a smug smile on his lips as he sat on the roof, watching as people went by. There were even little people there, just a little taller than him, and they drank alcohol and sang as if they were adults. _They probably were._

A different race, or so it seemed to him as he watched them go by – men, women, weird bearded folk, tiny adult people… and none of them spoke his language.

Sighing quietly, he vanished back into the forest, setting up camp quickly before falling into an odd dreamless sleep. _He could deal with these problems tomorrow. Right now he needed to refresh his mind and come up with a battle plan._ Preparation was key for survival, and if there was one thing Kakashi knew how to do – it was survive.

Mourning the dead and his old land could come later. _God he missed Gai and his obnoxious shouting, not that he’d ever admit it out loud._ Survival couldn’t wait. _Besides, if there was one thing he was good at it was boxing up his emotions and not dealing with them._

* * *

He headed even further east, his stay in the strange town having proven fruitless for any new information. All the books were written in the same language he presumed they spoke. Needless to say he didn’t understand a single word. Sighing at the memory, he plunged on, carrying his meagre food supplies, carefully rationing them on his trip. He was in an unfamiliar place, and he had yet to lay his sticky fingers on a map. _He had yet to work out where the hell he was period, so a map wouldn’t be all that helpful._

His feet were still soundless on the dirt track, eyes darting about, ear straining to hear any signs of danger. He was a shinobi through and through. A little jaunt across time and space wouldn’t change that, even if shinobi didn’t seem to exist there. Yawning, he walked further east, nearly leaping a foot into the air when he heard the clopping sound of a large animal.

_A cow? Or a horse? Or something else with hooves?_

He hadn’t met enough to distinguish between the sounds. Honestly, it wasn’t like he planned to magically reappear in a world that wasn’t his. It was just something that happened, like all those somewhat traumatic missions with Team Seven.

 _It was official,_ he decided, _the universe hated them._

Kakashi darted into the trees, eyes fixed on the road, ears twitching at the sounds of numerous cloven mounts of some description became that much more audible. He waited with bated breath in the branches, sharp eyes fixed on the road below. Teeth ground into his lip, nervousness betraying him as he crouched there, hidden in the leaves. _He barely restrained the childish, nervous, giggle that threatened to erupt. Hidden in the leaves. Oh the irony._

A smile curled at his lips, brain fighting against the childish instincts to run out and introduce himself to the approaching company. _Only an idiot would do that._ He wouldn’t deny it was strange though. As a child, he’d never had that inexplicable urge. Then again, shinobi didn’t feel so… nice. He tilted his head, wracking his brain as he tried to figure out what to call the strange feeling he felt towards the strangers approaching. _It was comfort,_ he realised. Shivers ran down his spine. _But why would he feel comfort towards a bunch of people he’d never met before?_ It wasn’t logical. Those kinds of feelings would’ve gotten him killed in his old world… but he wasn’t in his old world. Tears welled in his eyes, his childish shell not allowing him to force them back as he would’ve done as an adult.

All was silent aside from the clopping of horseshoes, the seven men – and here Kakashi was assuming because they were all inhumanly beautiful, and yet their voices had a masculine tinge to them, even if their words sounded musical – riding bareback down the road. All but one wore helmets, shades of brown and red hair streaming behind them, aside from their lead rider. His hair was gold, his eyes bright and clear as he led his company through the trees.

They were mostly quiet in their passing, but all it took was one word to make Kakashi blink. _He could understand them, clear as day._ Dimly, he watched as they rode by, concealing himself like the masterful shinobi he was, not daring to even take a breath, lest they discover him and encouraged him to join them. _The strange feeling of trust he had towards the strange creatures – yes, he’d noticed their pointed ears – hadn’t diminished in the slightest. In fact, it had only grown stronger._ He paused, waiting until they were a safe distance away before he finally reached for his ears. They’d been concealed by his hair the entire time, not once needing to be pushed behind his ears, but there was the undeniable proof.

He was no longer human.

Pointed ears. Different language. Even Naruto would’ve been able to figure out they were a different race, and that said it all. Kakashi was on another level when it came to intelligence and piecing facts together. _It also sort of explained the weird kinship he’d felt with them._

Nodding to himself, he collected his few belongings, dropping down from the branches, following the party back to wherever they were headed from a respectably safe distance, which to a paranoid shinobi fresh out of war, was a very very large one.

* * *

Elves.

He was an elf, apparently. Elfling to be precise, given his age was still well under a hundred. According to the book he could finally understand. _It seemed the language, whatever it was called, of the elves was hardwired into his brain. A good thing too, otherwise he’d never have found all the information about ‘Middle-Earth’ and the ‘Eldar’ as most of his new kin were known as._ Sighing quietly, he shut the book, silently thanking the Lord Elrond guy the little place officially belonged to. It’d have been annoying if he had to go to and from places to find all the information he’d been looking for, especially with all the elves wandering about. They had uncannily sharp senses, and if he’d been ever so slightly less trained or experienced, then he’d have no doubt been caught. He couldn’t use chakra at all to conceal himself, so it had all been brute strength and determination, the latter of which he seemed to have oodles of, the former not so much anymore. Luck had also been shining on him.

The same luck which ran out in that exact second as the door swung open.

A dark-haired elf walked in, a pile of documents in hand as he made for the table nearby, only to freeze in shock as he spotted the silvery-haired form sitting primly on the armchair.

Kakashi froze for a moment before his mouth went on autopilot. “Lovely weather we’re having, aren’t we?”

Green eyes flickered over to where the moonlight was pouring through the window, documents falling to the floor, but when those eyes snapped back to the armchair it was empty.

“I suppose that’s a sign I should get some more sleep…”

Kakashi smirked at the oddly calm elven voice, clinging to the outside of the wall for a few seconds longer, before dropping down into the foliage underneath the window he’d jumped out of at record speed. “Ah.” He giggled, concealing the high-pitched childish sound as best he could. “This is going to be fun.”

Silently, he wondered how long he’d get away with playing tricks on his new relatives. _It was a great distraction._ Because from what he’d just read, as soon as he was discovered he’d be mother-henned within an inch of his life. Elves were wonderfully overprotective of any little ones.

He just hoped they all wouldn’t be as crazy as Kushina and her definition of mother-henning.


	2. Sakura and the Art of Running

Sakura stared at the forest in front of her. She’d have liked to say something along the lines of _‘and the forest stared back at her’_ but that would be a huge lie. Trees were trees. They didn’t have any eyes to glare back at her with. It was more confusing because she hadn’t been expecting to see any trees after the fight with Kaguya. _After she’d been turned into ash at a painfully slow rate._ Her body shook like a leaf, nails digging into her soft skin as she hugged her knees to her chest. _She didn’t want to feel that pain again. It had hurt. It had scarred her very soul._ Little crescent marks were left in the wake of her fingernails, teeth biting into her lip as she realised something with a start. _Her nails were tiny._ Stopping herself in her tracks, she had a proper look down at herself, trembling when she saw how close the ground was. _How was that possible? How had she lost height?_ Her knees crashed into each other, still shaking in the wake of everything she’d experienced. _She’d just died, for god’s sake… How was she supposed to bounce back from that? She wasn’t bubbly cheerful like Naruto. Nor had she survived through wars like Kakashi. She didn’t even have a traumatic past like Sasuke…_ She stilled, hearing the gurgling of water nearby, deciding to focus on a more pressing issue. “Where the hell am I?” she whispered, jumping with a start at the sound of her own voice.

It sounded weirdly musical, the sounds completely different to what she was used to. _How the hell was she even speaking a different language to begin with?_ But she’d died. She could still remember the feeling as she’d slipped away, the black numbness – a bliss after the burning pain, so much so, she’d actually sighed in relief when death finally took hold. _Well, it was more like a mental sigh, her lips having already crumbled to ash._

Sakura looked around wildly, holding out hope she might spot something familiar to her. She was a shinobi of Konohagakure. They specialised in trees and leaves, so it came as a start to her when she realised she had no idea what kind of trees the ones surrounding her were. It was alien. Foreign. She bit her lip, uncaring as she drew blood. She was allowed to freak out. She’d just died… or at least she thought she had. So how had she ended up there? _Was reincarnation or something, a thing?_

She slapped her face, pressing her cheeks together, wincing at the slight pain. _Nothing like Kaguya’s All-Killing Ash Bones._ Yet it proved she was alive, especially when coupled with the bright red blood pooling from the small cut on her finger. She was alive somehow… just not in her own body. Long pink hair fell in front of her face as if to contradict that very thought, making her freeze, _because, honestly, who else had pink hair like that?_

The sound of water rushing by had her head snapping around, her body moving itself over towards the waters on autopilot. She fell to her knees, leaning over the surface, staring into the big green eyes gazing up at her from it. _Those were her eyes._ Her hands went to her silky pink locks, noting how they were shinier than those of her… last life. _Sakura wasn’t too sure what to call it._ Had she really been reborn? Her stare drifted down to the green tunic she wore. It was far too big for her, tightened around her tiny waist with a brown strap of some description. She swallowed audibly, pausing for a moment when she caught sight of her ears.

They were tapered at the ends, lending credence to the strange idea that she’d somehow been reincarnated. _Was she even still in the Elemental Nations? The same world?_ She’d never heard of any pointy-eared clans, even while apprenticing under the Hokage.

She was so caught up in her blurred reflection she barely reacted to the flicker of metal in the corner of her eye. Instinct made her move, years of ‘ _dodge the flying piece of metal and numerous other odd bits and ends Tsunade threw’_ coming into play. _She missed Tsunade-shishou._ She stumbled back on too short legs, glancing up at her would-be murderer only to pause at _his_ appearance. A rather unfortunate one, black skin, rotting sharp teeth, deformed versions of pointy ears. Frankly she wasn’t sure if _he_ was actually a male. With the raggedy armour and greasy strands of hair it was practically impossible to tell. The only thing she knew was that she most certainly wasn’t in Konoha anymore, and that the man— _beast_ —she wasn’t quite sure what to call them was staring at her like she was dinner.

Rustling in the bushes, and the terrified realisation that the stream was shallow enough to cross had her running as fast as she could. Fear made her legs move faster, her breath coming in shallow pants as she flat out sprinted through the forest, uncaring as she dived through the coarsest bushes, and the brambliest copses to try and throw off the sounds of pounding feet she could hear behind her. They called out to each other in a tongue she couldn’t recognise, hammering in the realisation that she wasn’t in the Elemental Nations. In fact, she likely wasn’t on her _old_ earth. The creatures were new, and utterly horrifying, and Sakura had no desire to be caught by them.

_They felt wrong. They felt dark, and darkness didn’t belong in the forest._

Cut and grazed, she ran, terrified for her newish life. _She didn’t want to die again._ She couldn’t face death again. _It was cold and numb. Too numb._ The sounds of a river ahead of her made her mind race. _Maybe she could lose her strange pursuers there?_ She was too distracted by her thoughts to hear the snap of a bowstring, and she didn’t have eyes in the back of her head, so when the arrow pierced her shoulder she stumbled. Tears welled in her eyes, her footsteps faltering, despair finally setting in when she tripped out of the bushes to arrive at the banks of the wide, rushing water. It was deep. Too deep to cross.

A sob slipped from her lips. _What was the point in her coming there if she was only going to die?_ She glanced back, sharp ears picking up the sounds of those footsteps, growing closer by the second. It was a choice. The river or the strange beasts.

Sakura eyed the raging waters. _Either way her chances of survival were slim… but she’d take drowning over being eaten any day._ She threw herself forwards, dropping into the river with a small splash, diving under the surface with a big breath as she let the currents carry her away. Luck, or the forest, must have been smiling on her, because when she surfaced a safe distance away from the beasts, there was a thin piece of driftwood. Coughing up the small bit of water she’d swallowed, she let herself rest on the floating wood, exhaustion making her eyelids droop as she floated down the river, the arrow still stubbornly buried through her shoulder even as she passed out.

* * *

When she came to, the water had swept her to a shallow bank. It was night-time, and the temperature was dropping. She shivered, hauling her aching body to her feet. Her eyes narrowed, hands curling into fists as she paused, listening for any sound of those strange man-eating creatures… or whatever-species-she-now-was-eating creatures. _Nothing_. She took a breath, sighing in relief as the shivers overtook her small form again. At least she wasn’t on the menu anymore.

The arrow in her shoulder twinged, her hand coming up to press gently against the ruined skin, searching her brain for all the medical knowledge, scowling as every answer came up the same to her unspoken questions. She couldn’t see how much damage the arrow had done… _didn’t know how many blood vessels or muscles it had cut through._ She couldn’t even use her chakra to shore herself up, so removing the arrow wasn’t an option. It might cause her to bleed more, and she didn’t have any sterile cloth with which to bind up her wound.

Trees pulsed with energy around her, the feeling oddly reminiscent of the strange energy that now dwelled within her. She swallowed, her throat dry. _Now wasn’t the time to be worrying about trees._ She was alone, stuck without provisions or shelter, with an arrow wound to the shoulder and numerous other cuts and grazes littering her body. _She wouldn’t survive the night at this rate._ Swallowing back a whimper, she pressed on, following the trail the trees were leading her to. Laughter bubbled in her throat, hysteria taking its course. _The trees were leading her somewhere… now she knew the blood loss was making her delirious._

Her ears were ringing, her feet barely moving at a shuffle, the events of the day having finally taken their toll – both on her mind and body. Maybe that was why she didn’t see the campfire until it was too late.

“Is that… a child?”

Several sets of eyes fell over on her small form. Sakura stiffened, silently cursing her short attention span and lack of concentration as the conversations tapered off. Their voices were beautiful, oddly similar to her own new one, and the from the last snippets of conversation she caught words she could actually understand. These people could speak her new language, whatever it was, but Sakura would sooner throw herself back into the river before willingly going over to the strange group. _The last bunch of creatures she’d ran into had wanted her for dinner. There was no telling what kind of horrors these new people would do._ Sakura stumbled back, blinking at the soft voice calling out to her in a foreign tongue. Her eyes narrowed. _Why weren’t they using the other language? The one she actually seemed to be able to understand…_

Golden hair caught the light of the fire, shimmering as the man rose to his feet, clear bright grey eyes fixing on her green ones. He called out again, tone questioning, and Sakura backed up. She didn’t care about the childish half of her that wanted to run up to the group. She didn’t care about how light and pure the energy inside them felt, especially the blonde.

_Blonde hair reminded her of Naruto… though Sakura wasn’t sure Naruto’s hair could be compared to the new guy’s. His hair would’ve made her preteen self incredibly jealous._

Blind trust meant death to a shinobi, so rather than sticking around like Naruto probably would’ve done, she turned on her heel and ran, ignoring the urgent shout behind her. Her heart raced for the second time that day, exhausted feet dragging her into a crevasse between two large tree roots to hide, despite the fact she couldn’t hear the sound of any footsteps behind her.

Her shinobi instincts were flaring – telling her she was being followed, and apparently her newest pursuers were a stealthy bunch. _She hated the stealthy ones. They were annoying to deal with, and even harder to evade, especially when one’s chakra wasn’t working._

Holding her breath she waited in the darkness, ignoring the pain flaring in her undersized body. _Just a little longer,_ she told herself. _Then she’d be back on her feet and ready to survive this bleak new world she found herself stranded in._


	3. Sasuke and the Art of Hiding

Sasuke knew it wasn’t going to be a good day when he woke up. He’d been expecting the Pure Lands – his family – his brother. _God, he missed Itachi…_ His hands curled into fists. _He’d just been too blinded by anger and revenge to see it. To see that he still loved the boy who gave him those obnoxious forehead pokes and scarfed down dango as if he were a starving man._ Tears leaked down his face, wind biting at his cheeks as he sat atop the strange ruins. _He wanted to see his family. He wanted his nana. He wanted his brother… he also wanted to see his ada… but not as much as the other two._

He blinked. _Nana? Ada?_ Sasuke froze at the unfamiliar words which had replaced mother and father. _And why did he sound like some sort of petulant child?_ He was an adult, no matter whether it was civilians talking or shinobi talking. Stomping his feet, he stood, proudly looking down from the set of ruins atop the strange hill, only to pause when he realised he hadn’t moved that far. His eyes shot down to his feet, staring at the tiny feet attached to his short legs. He held his hands palm up, flipping them over, glaring at the tiny nails, perfectly pink, trimmed to the perfect size. His skin was smooth, unblemished despite all the fighting he’d done.

_He was a child._

_Again._

Sasuke screamed, his voice high, stones skittering as he stumbled back, falling into the ruins with a loud thud. _Not only was he a child, but he also had no idea where he was._ He’d journeyed far and wide whilst under the tutelage of Orochimaru. There wasn’t a single place he hadn’t visited in the elemental nations, and this place didn’t belong to any of them.

Plus there was the matter of him dying. Kaguya had cut him down, drained him and Naruto of their chakra… he’d drifted away, like falling asleep, only to wake up on a strange crop of rock _alone_. He glanced around, some part of him holding out hope that he might spy a mop of blonde hair if only so he could throttle the idiot. Clearly his new situation was a result of his best friend’s idiocy. It had Naruto written all over it.

He peered around the ruined fortress, sighing in relief when he spotted the puddle of shimmery water close to where he stood. His reflection might not have been particularly clear, but it did its job. His cheeks were red and round, nose slightly up-tilted, lips large and awfully pink. Long black hair fell down his back, _about as long as Itachi’s,_ his brain decided to remind him. Wide eyes of the darkest grey stared back at him from the puddle. There was no mistaking the fact that he was now stuck in a child’s body. Worse, it didn’t seem to be an Uchiha’s at all. He tried to activate his sharingan, heart in his throat as his birth right – his last connection to his dead clan – refused to activate. His eyes remained stubbornly dark, his chakra not even moving in his core.

Sasuke froze, trying to pull on the strange light he could feel where his chakra was supposed to be. _That wasn’t chakra._ He stared at his baby hand, grabbing either side of his head as he screamed. Nothing made any sense. He patted at his ears gingerly, ice settling in his chest when he noticed the points. He had pointy ears… _He’d never heard of a clan with pointy ears…_ His scream echoed around the desolate place, his heart beating furiously as he realised his childish mistake. _Who knew what enemies were out there?_ He’d just let everyone know there was somebody in the ruins. Climbing to the nearby wall, he blinked, eyeing up the forest surrounding his new location. _Well, only if there were actually people in the forest._ It was looking to be horribly deserted.

Biting his lip, he glared out at the world, gingerly taking a step out of the ruins. First things first he needed to secure food and water. He had his shelter. _Only after he’d dealt with those things could he focus on other tasks – like curling up in a ball and lamenting the fact he was friends with one Uzumaki Naruto._ Weird stuff always happened around him far too frequently to be natural.

* * *

Sasuke stared at the pile of edible berries and nuts he’d found. _Well, he assumed they were edible, anyway._ The thought of killing any sort of animal for food had brought tears to his eyes for reasons unknown. _He just reasoned with himself that it’d be troublesome to start a fire for cooking._ “Dammit,” he muttered, pulling the cloak he wore further around his shoulders. “I’m starting to sound like that blasted Nara.”

He sat there for a few moments, blinking at the sound of his voice, before checking his makeshift traps and curling up ready for sleep in his nice safe hidey-hole far away from any other form of sentient life, content to ignore the world around him so long as it ignored him.

_He could deal with the oncoming angst in peace and quiet. No need to bother anybody else._


	4. Naruto and the Art of Being Lost

Naruto blinked, taking in his surroundings blankly.

It didn’t look like the Pure Lands.

He was in the middle of a forest somewhere, the trees unusually large… but they didn’t look like Hashirama Trees. Not that he’d been expecting Hashirama Trees or anything. He was dead. Well, he was supposed to be, but if he was dead he was fairly sure Kurama would still be hanging about with him. A quick glance down at his stomach revealed clean white skin, unmarred by any seals. Kurama was gone. _That was right._ He wrapped his arms around himself. _He was alone. Again._

Blonde hair fell in front of his face, hiding the tears before he forced them back. A smile curled at his lips, bitter and broken, and he climbed to his feet, eating dirt seconds later when he tripped over his uncoordinated limbs. _Why did he feel ridiculously short?_

“Huh?” the musical voice echoed around the clearing. It took Naruto a few moments to realise the voice in question had come from him. “What’s going on?”

_His voice sounded funny._

A flicker of silver in his vision had him spinning about, the name leaving his lips in that lyrical voice. “Kakashi?”

The silver-haired… boy… Naruto blinked, staring at the unfamiliar boy… _who was taller than him… and looked about eight years old, if that._

“Oh. Sorry,” he mumbled, stepping back. _He was clearly mistaken. That wasn’t Kakashi._ “Wrong person.” He scratched the back of his head sheepishly. “Say, you wouldn’t happen to know where we are exactly?”

The silvery-haired boy shook his head, sighing loudly. “Only you, Naruto… only you…”

Naruto jumped in shock. “How do you—Wait!” He peered even closer at the strange boy – his ears were pointed for crying out loud. _It couldn’t be… surely the universe wasn’t smiling on him_. “Kakashi?”

Grey eyes crinkled up in a smile, his lips – actually visible – mirroring them. “Correct.”

“We’re… alive?”

“Yep.” Kakashi nodded. “And I’m guessing if you’re here too, then it means Sakura and Sasuke have tagged along for the ride.”

A smile curved at his lips. He wasn’t alone. They all weren’t dead. “They’re alive…”

“Yep.”

The smile dropped from his face. “Oh god, they’re totally going to blame this one on me…”

“Yep.”

“They’re going to murder me…”

“Yep.” Kakashi paused, leaning towards him pointedly, one hand on his hip, long silvery hair swishing behind him. “So… Wanna come with me and prank some elves?”

“Fuck yes.”

Kakashi grinned, an oddly impish sight with his new face. “Let’s go then.”

Naruto hurried behind him without a second thought. _He wasn’t alone. The rest of Team Seven had tagged along for the ride, even if two of them were no doubt planning his murder at that very moment in time._ A smile graced his lips, a real one that time, before his brain caught up with the conversation, leaving him with one burning question _._ “Wait. What’s an elf?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is a sequel to this, don't you worry ;)
> 
> It's the next work along in this wonderful series of mine: Finding Family


End file.
